Diego Sanchez vs. David Bielkheden at UFC 82

Although Diego Sanchez (17-2 MMA, 6-2 UFC) previously announced that he would face Roan Carneiro at UFC 82, the UFC welterweight yesterday issued a new MySpace bulletin stating that his opponent would instead be David Bielkheden (12-5 MMA, 0-0 UFC).

MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) got confirmation of the fight with a member of Sanchez’s camp.

There’s no word if Carneiro was, in fact, booked for the fight or why he may have been dropped from the card.

The event marks the UFC debut of Bielkheden, a Swede who’s fought in organizations all over Europe and Asia, including PRIDE and Shooto. He fought just two weeks ago at a Lord of the Ring event in Serbia and delivered MMA newcomer Nikola Matic a first-round TKO.

Back in February 2007, Bielkheden defeated current UFC fighter Charles McCarthy at an Absolute Fighting Championships event. Bielkheden, a Brazilian Top Team member, earned the first-round submission via strikes.

Sanchez recently lost back-to-back fights after winning his first 17 professional bouts. The losses to Josh Koscheck and Jon Fitch had the 26-year-old fighter considering a move to 155 lbs., but earlier this month, his management team told MMAjunkie.com that Sanchez had ultimately ruled against it.

UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey is probably the greatest female fighter on the planet, which is a tremendous feat. So why are we seemingly so obsessed with arguing about whether she could beat up men?